Top Seven Free Artist Profiling Sites

In the process of setting up, launching and promoting canvas art site espiritoart.com, we have used a number of art profiling / art networking sites, with varying degrees of success. What follows is by no means a definitive list based on extensive research - but is a reflection of what we have found to be useful in gaining web traffic, contacts and enquiries.

As with all social and business networking, the more you put into it the more you get out, and when using these sites, we have focussed more attention on some than others. However, first impressions count, and we've put more into those networking sites that proved easy to use, and started generating interest in our canvas art early on.

1) DeviantArt - Very large online community with great opportunities to interact and get your artwork seen. Friendly, young audience that has generated over 15,000 visits to our artworks in less than 3 months. Useful statistics are available on your artworks and main artist's page.

2) FineArtAmerica - Not exlusively for America, and appears to attract more visitors intent on looking for art to buy, as opposed to artists looking to display their portfolios. Good weekly update on your visitors, together with their location.


3) ArtWanted - Easy to use site, with lively online community always ready to provide useful (or useless but very complimentary!) comments on your artwork.


4) RedBubble - Nice looking site and lots of opportunity to enter your work into contents or to feature your art on group pages. Only let down a little by endless updates from the groups you enter (e.g. x artwork by y artist has been featured in z group), which can be annoying if you're in several groups.

5) Saatchi - If the statistics on the main page are correct (sorry, but who does that now!), this is an exceptionally well visited site, and certainly profiles an incredible number of artists. Although serious enquiries have come from this portal, it is really let down by very poor web design making navigation a real pain. Art 'showdowns', where visitors rate work and winners are exhibited in Saatchi galleries are a highlight.

6) PaintingsILove - A relatively small networking site for artists, with a very friendly community. Not the most stunning of web designs but easy to use with a 5 star rating system for visitors which can give you some interesting feedback on your work if you have a large porfolio.

7) ArtSlant - In our experience, relatively quiet on the interaction front, but a nicely programmed slideshow featuring prominently on your page.


An important factor in all of these sites is of course, the fact that they are all free to use, making the ability to link back to your site and promote your artwork only dependent on the time you can spend doing it.